New Study Finds Goldfish Can Drive Cars On Land

Israeli researchers discovered that goldfish can navigate on land after they learn to drive. A FOV, a fish-operated vehicle, was developed by a team from Ben-Gurion University. Lidar, a remote sensing technology that uses pulsed laser light to collect data on the vehicle's ground location as well as the location of the fish inside a mounted water tank is placed on the robotic car.

A computer, camera, electric motors, and Omni-wheels are used by the fish to control the vehicle.

"It is absolutely astonishing that the goldfish learns to operate the car after just a few training sessions.  They are perplexed at first. They have no idea what's going on, but they quickly notice that their movement and the movement of the machine in which they are in, are linked," said Shachar Givon, a researcher,

The study involved six goldfish, each of whom received approximately ten driving lessons. They were rewarded with food every time one of them met a goal set by the researchers.

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In addition, some goldfish drive better than others.

The FOVs are basically mobile fish tanks with a computer, camera, and a LIDAR (a laser-based device that targets objects and measures their distances). The fish remains submerged in water, allowing it to breathe, and the tank responds to its movement. When the fish swims, the tank moves as well.

After that, the researchers devised a series of tasks for the fish to complete. When they were able to find the fishmobile, they were given food pellets as rewards. 

According to Shachar Givon, a Ph.D student, "This research tells us that navigational capability is universal and not environment-specific. It also shows that goldfish have a cognitive ability to grasp complicated things fast. Anyone who has attempted to learn to ride a bicycle or drive a car knows how challenging it can be at first."

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